Excess grooming

[ReviewingTheSituation]

I'm sure the net result of this thread will be 'go to the vet', but before I phone them in the morning I thought I'd seek opinions anyway.

We noticed our cat was overgrooming her belly a while back, to the point where the hair got very thin. She was at the vet for something else, and I asked them to look at it. They said there was no evidence of skin soreness or irritation, no mites or anything like that. No reason at all. They asked about stress. In theory she should be the least stressed she's ever been because she hates visitors (or anyone apart from us), and we haven't had anyone in the house since August! The vet said to get Feliway, which we did, and the hair seemed to grow back a bit, but it's still thin.
But now she's really going for it on the back of her legs and (today for the first time) at the base of her tail - so not that close to the other sites. We have Feliway - I'm not sure it does anything.

So it's a call to the vet, but any words of wisdom/experience would be interesting. The vet has twice said they can't see any cause, but there has to be something going on...

It definitely sounds like stress.
It could be something really small that’s stressing her - new cat in the area, building work going on outside, change of food. Our cat lost the plot when we had a rental car parked on the drive way.

Feliway is good stuff- if that’s not done the trick ask your vet for zylkene tablets. They might be worth a shot.

I’ve worked in a vets for 20 years and it such a common problem

Stress does feel logical, but the problem is if we keep her inside (to keep her away from potential external stresses) then she hates it - she loves being outside!
I'll ask about the tablets though - Feliway just doesn't seem to be doing anything.

It could be something outside that’s stressing her that your not aware of. Agree don’t keep her locked in that could make even more stressed.
I think feliway has a 80% success rate (something like that) so it doesn’t suit all. You can get zylkene over the counter so might save you a trip to the vet.
You can short term put a buster collar on your cat to break the cycle of over grooming

Thanks- I'll get some. We have been debating a collar, but that means keeping her in (can't get out the cat flap with a cone!) But maybe we do need to just to give it a chance to recover initially.

You can get Zylkene off Amazon, and various pet food sites. Seemed to work on my nervous pair when I've needed something.

We got the Zylkene, but now she's not keen on eating when it's on her food (and she normally wolfs her food down).
I'm wondering if a week or so might have made a difference, so I'm going to have to see what happens if we don't give her any.

I haven't seen her doing much manic washing in the past week or so, so I think I'll just have to keep an eye on her. Maybe occasional doses of Zylkene. And resort to the collar if we have to...